Malistaire's Bane: Book one of the Schools of Magic Series
by Wizard England
Summary: Its been three years since Malistaire sent the Death School to underneath the waterfall. When Malistaire returns after all those years, swearing to take over the Spiral, ten wizards rise to stop him. One of each school. Even the astral schools. Will they be able to save the spiral or will Malistaire defeat them? Written by Mary UnicornStrider & Alura SkullBlade
1. Prologue by Alura

**Alura's PoV**

_3 years ago, the day that Malistaire lost his mind_

I'm in my dorm, reading the book _Introduction to Death_ by Alexandra Grave when I start to feel a gentle shaking. I decide to ignore it, but fate has a different idea, for the shaking grows strong enough that I immediately assume that one of Professor Drake's Myth students has gotten the Earthquake spell wrong, and is now causing a very strong Earthquake.

I dive under my desk and get in the position. Things fall off my nightstand, I command my candles to go out, and I squeeze my eyes shut. This happens so often that it's routine, and I even have four cushions down here so it's more comfortable.

A few minutes later, after the glass in my windows shatters and my alarm clock is broken, along with a few pictures in frames, the shaking stops. I peek an eye open and look around from my shelter. Glass is scattered all over the floor, and my alarm clock is smoking (never a good sign).

I shakily emerge from my hiding spot, being careful as to not cut myself on the glass. I open my front door to see the campus in chaos. People are running around, and several buildings are alight with black fire. I find that particularly odd.

What I find even weirder is the fact that everyone is running towards the fires, not away from them. Or, really, something _in_ the fire. I, never one to run away from the interesting, follow the crowd. We're moving along between the schools and towers when everybody stops. I growl under my breath. "Hey, what's everyone looking at?" I push to the front of the crowd, ignoring all protests.

I get a look at what was so exciting.

The Death School and tower are missing.

Not even the land it was on is there.

Almost on cue, everyone starts screaming and running around in a panic while the professors try to calm everyone down. I just stare at the empty square of former land, hoping my father, the Death Professor, isn't dead. I'm also wondering how this happened.

I vow to find out.

I go up to a teacher, and unwisely find Cyrus Drake, who absolutely hates me. "Professor Drake, do you know what happened to the Death School?" I ask him.

"Shut up, you inept Necromancer!" he hisses at me.

Figuring that I'll get nothing from him, I push my way through the crowd to Professor Balestrom. "Sir, what happened to the Death School?"

He jumps when he sees me and shifts uncomfortably. "Your father…" he hesitates.

My heart beats quicken, "What about my father?"

"He… destroyed the Death School."

My eyes widen, and a thousand emotions run through me. "No, he wouldn't do that!"

"I'm sorry, Alura," Balestrom looks at me sadly, "but it's true."

I narrow my eyes and run through the crowd, searching for Headmaster Ambrose. I finally see him trying to calming down a group of students, and I march up. "Why is Professor Balestrom saying my father did this? That's nonsense!"

He jumps in surprise and looks very nervous, "I'm afraid that he's right, Alura. Your father did this."

"That's impossible! He would never do this!" I exclaim.

"He's been understandably… unstable the past few days, I'm afraid," he continues. "He wasn't in his right mind."

"No…" I back up. Several of the students are eyeing me warily, and some are eyeing me in pity, "No…" I take off running to the commons, hoping everything outside of campus makes sense.


	2. Chapter 1 by Mary

**Mary: Sorry this is so short. It was originally a lot longer but then I lost my first draft (If anyone noticed it didn't post all the way) so anyways sorry how short it is**

**Lilly's PoV**

_I already knew it was going to be a sucky day when I realized I'd fallen asleep on my death text book and droll had bled through 2 pages. It was going to be wonderful explaining that to Prof. Drake. Not the ugly bald myth troll, the Death Teacher, Malistaire Drake. I'd always admired him as a little girl, he had always been such a powerful necromancer...Class was starting in less than 10 minutes so I rushed to get ready. I scribbled down guesses to the homework questions I didn't quite finish and I scurried out of my dorm room. The Death school was quiet as usual, a few low leveled death students were hanging around the tower trying to look cool in their death hoods trying a bit too hard to look like the Grim Reaper or something. I snickered._

_Prof. Drake was sitting at his desk looking paler than usual. He really looked unkempt. The other students in my journeyman class sat around looking sympathetic. We all knew Malistaire's current wife Sylvia had fallen ill a while ago. That must be pretty shocking not only for Malistaire but for the kids too. Malistaire had one daughter named Alura with some other lady, Alura was a necromancer like me but she was in a higher level class, grandmaster or something, so naturally I didn't have any classes with her. But Malistaire and Sylvia also had 2 daughters together, Mary and Rachel. Mary was a Theurgist like her mom, didn't really know her either, I'm pretty sure she's a grandmaster too. Everyone however knew Rachel. She was the youngest grandmaster Thaumaturge of all time, she was always pulling pranks on other students. Anyways, it must be hard on everyone in that family. Having a family member falling ill must be heartbreaking._

_The lesson started off pretty normal. Malistaire was dully going back over the vampire spell, we'd all learned that spell at least 10 times but none of us were going to complain to the poor guy. His wife was sick!_

_I noticed Kyle DeathDust was giving me and evil eye. I flinched away from him. Kyle had been a jerk to me my entire life simply because I was a year older than everyone in the class. I had just moved from Dragonspyre and over there we started Wizard training a bit later because Dragonspyre Acadamy was pretty rough._

_Katelyn LifeCaller runs into the room looking like she was going to faint. _

_"P-Prof. D-Drake" Katelyn stammers "Prof. S-S-Syvlvia...Dead..."_

_The room goes to complete silence._

_Malistaire's eyes begins to glow black "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"_

_A wraith hits the apprentice Theurgist with great force. Everyone in the classroom screams. Kyle gets up to run, Malistaire raises his staff and bright lights hit Kyle straight on his back. He yells and falls to the ground._

_His sister Mindy DeathDust screams "KYLE!"_

_Everything turns to chaos there. I'm the only one that can't move as the building starts shaking. Everyone runs out screaming. People are already coming out to see what the big deal is. The Death School and the Tower are flying in the air._

_"Kyle and Katelyn are still in there!" Mindy shouts_

_I notice Alura running outside, she's pale. Rachel looks a mixture of sadness and anger and Mary looks like she's going to throw up._

_The earthquake seizes._

_Katelyn and Kyle were still in the school when it flew away._

_"Necromancy can no longer be a subject for at least 3 years until we can reset the school and teachers" I heard a teacher mutter_

_No…No…Death…Necromancy…It's my talent! I can't lose it! Anything but that!_

I wake up screaming.

My pet Black Cat Midnight licks my hand soothingly, she's used to me waking up screaming, for 3 whole years of my life I'd woke up screaming with that same exact nightmare. It made me want to cry. I loved Midnight, she knew how to make me feel better. I know if she could make me forget that dreadful day she would.

"Good girl" I whisper

I pull out for the first time in 3 years my Necromancy Books. I'd always woke up before the Death School flew away, this must mean something.

I flip through my book for the rest of the night until I notice a small black box glued at the back of the book.

It's a deck with every necromancy card inside.

A note is written on it:

**_You're a special Necromancer Lilly, I'm glad to have you as a student. I'm lucky to have you as a student. Thank you for roughing through everyone putting you down. I know you have an important destiny._**

**_-Malistaire_**

That pushes me over the edge, I start crying, half with sadness, half with happiness.

**Rachel's PoV**

I wake up in the middle of the night grinning evilly. I have a lake in the Commons to freeze.


	3. Chapter 2 by Alura

**Alura's PoV**

I'm in the Commons Lake, getting some water for a… test of sorts when I see Rachel. Rachel + middle of the night in Commons + her being an Ice Wizard = GET OUT OF THE LAKE QUICKLY!

I scramble out of the lake just as there's a frosty blue flash behind me. I turn around to see three novices frozen in the lake, struggling uselessly (who knows why they're even out here).

Rachel sees me and yelps, "I AM NOT RACHEL ICEFANG, I AM THE GREAT ICINI!" and she teleports away.

I worry about her most of the time.

"Help! We're stuck!" a novice yells out the obvious.

"I got it, I got it," I sigh, kneeling down by the pond.

The scream when they realize what I'm about to do. "Not you, anyone but you! You'll burn us!" my fire powers are unpredictable when it comes to things without wands.

"I heard it's because of her…" another novice stops talking when they see my expression.

"I'm trying to save you here, so at least be respectful, and just to be clear, my 'dad' and I don't get along," I roll my eyes, "of course, you believe every rumor except the one that says the truth. Listen, kid, not all rumors are true, you know? People can mistake or misinterpret what they hear."

"Please use your wand, though?" they ask in a small voice.

"I'm not an idiot! I don't want to burn you all. Seriously, of course I'm using my wand…" I reach into the back of my boot and pull out my wand. It's dark silver, and looks like a unicorn horn. My old Necromancy wand. "Hold still, now."

They gulp and start sweating after closing their eyes, but they stay still. I touch my wand to the top of the frozen pond and imagine the ice heating up. The ice turns orange, and then melts. I pull my wand away quickly before it can turn the water to fire or make the water boil. "You're free, you know that, right? I won't even ask what you were doing here," I put my wand back in my boot.

The novices just take off running, shivering like crazy. Not even a thank you… "You're welcome," I mutter.

I stand up and brush myself off. I own a Celestial Observatory, and my testing room is there, and since I don't have time to collect ingredients during the day all the often… I get the ingredients at night.

Currently, I just need some mist wood, ten rubies, cat trails, petals of a frost flower, petals of a lava lily, shadow oil, and a black pearl.

I'm making a Hit-Christopher-FireGlade-With-A-Beam Machine. Let's just say that Christopher and I have a messy history together (that low, lying, selfish ba- right, okay then, getting off track).

The ingredients make the ammo for the HCFGWB Machine (its short for Hit-Christopher-FireGlade-With-A-Beam Machine), and the fuel it makes is _epic_.

Silvery white fire… I DISCOVERED A NEW FIRE COLOR!

Anyways, since that… incident… three years ago, Death Magic was dropped as a subject, and I'd switched to the Fire School, hoping to control my amazing fiery abilities. Of course, since it's going to being introduced again soon… I have no idea what I'll do. Take Pyromancy as my secondary school, and go back to Necromancy? The other way around?

The problem was that whenever I practiced Necromancy in my castle, I remembered how dad had guided me, and… then the monster or shield or blade catches fire and vanishes.

It doesn't help that my castle floors are like mirrors in the training room (the only place I dare do that), and I look too much like dad; dark hair, same sharp nose. I have my mother's electric blue eyes. I fear that I've lost my touch with Death Magic, but I'm sure it's only temporary. I mean, my dad left a black mark upon the family, sure, but still… I can get through this stupid trauma. Why did trauma have to be invented..?

"Alura, Alura, Alura, Alura!" Lilly comes running up behind me, her blond hair whipping about behind her, looking like it hasn't been brushed, "Look what I found!"

"Aw, so I'm _not_ the only one besides Rachel who is up," I grin, "Is this thing that you absolutely must show me private stuff?"

"Rachel's awake?" she looks surprised and a little scared at the thought of Rachel sneaking around at night.

"Oh don't worry, she just froze some novices in the lake," I motion towards the lake. "So, is this thing that you absolutely must show me private stuff?" I repeat myself.

She thinks on this for a second, "Yep," she finally decides, "Your Castle? Mine's… well mine's a dorm."

I nod, "Port when I say…" I think for a minute, "Port!" I port to my Castle a second after, rush inside, and close the door. I make the door to my lab invisible and tell Lilly to port. She appears by me a second later.

"You're school symbols when you port never fail to confuse me. Why are they moons?" she asks for the millionth time.

"Because they're awesome," I shrug, "I don't know!"

She giggles, "You get asked that a lot."

"Yes I do, which is why I just snapped," I plop down on a green Marylebone couch, "now show me what thy seeks to."

"Why 'thy seeks to'?" Lilly looks confused.

"Yes, its Olde English for show me what it is you want to show me now," I grin at her. "Come on, I don't bite. Much."

"MoonSong, you don't bite," she rolls her eyes and sits down next to me, "You stab!"

"Oi, it isn't my fault I annoy every evil loony out there," I defend myself, "I have to defend myself _somehow_."

"You're wand, then."

"To predictable. I like being unpredictable."

"Right, well," Lilly looks like she's barely holding back excitement, "This!" she pulls a black box from behind her back.

"Ooh, it's a box. Isn't that amazing?" I say sarcastically.

She rolls her eyes, "Don't be silly, Alura, it's this!" she hands me a piece of paper. I read it over and pale:

**_You're a special Necromancer Lilly, I'm glad to have you as a student. I'm lucky to have you as a student. Thank you for roughing through everyone putting you down. I know you have an important destiny._**

**_-Malistaire_**

I keep my face blank of emotions as I read this, though there's a tumult of emotions rushing through me: sadness, wonder, anger, sadness, betrayal, and curiosity. I hand her the note. "When did you first notice this?" I ask her.

"Just tonight," she grins, "but I think he put it there before the disappearance. He thought I was special."

I nod, "What's in the box?" I motion to the black box, "I'm assuming it came with the note."

"It did," she confirms, "It's… a deck of every death spell."

My eyes widen, "Well I suppose he thought you extra special."

"Thought? You're talking like he's dead," Lilly looks worried.

"Lils, to me he _is_ dead," I smile at her sadly. "Stay here while I call Mary and Rachel."


	4. Chapter 3 by Mary

**Mary's PoV**

****Rachel teleports into my room in my castle at 3:00 AM. Someone**_please_**call the police and get her out.

"Mary I froze noobs in the Commons!" Rachel exclaims

"Why were noobs in the pond in the Commons at 3 AM?" I ask

"I dunno but Alura was there too!" Rachel replies

"Why was _Alura _in the pond in the Commons at 3 AM?" I ask

"WELL I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T STALK PEOPLE OR ANYTHING!" Rachel says, whistling suspisously

My Hotzilla Lady Dixie and my and my Fierce Hound George both growled at Rachel in unison.

"She's not doing anything horrible" I reply rolling my eyes

Lady Dixie pouts, George gives Rachel the evil eye.

George had hated Rachel ever since she "accidently" shaved him when she was 9. I remember Mom laughing, though it turned into a cough. Dad had helped her make a cute little coat for him...

If I could punch my memories into oblivion I would.

My cellphone rings. Rachel screams and jumps hitting the ceiling.

"Careful you don't break anything" I mutter

I raise an eyebrow laughing a bit.

"Rachel why is Alura's ringtone Cotton Eyed Joe?" I ask laughing

Rachel shrugs.

I pick it up barely containing my laughter "H-Hello"

"Mary are you okay?" Alura asks

"Peachy why?" I ask, then I break out laughing

"What's so funny?" Alura asks

"N-Nothing" I reply biting my lip to quit laughing

"Lilly found an entire deck of necromancy cards in one of her spell books" Alura says "Teleport to my house"

"Should Rachel come too Cotton Eyed Joe?" I ask

"Yeah and why did you jus-" Alura begins

"NOTHING!" I yell back "I'll bring Rachel"

**Ariana's PoV**

****Waking up in the middle of the night had turned into a habit of mine. I always had a tiny problem with homework. Always forgetting it. But of course Prof. Drake had grown weary of my stupid excuses so I had to be extra careful whenever I had homework.

Report on Trolls. Check.

Report on Bloodbats. Check.

Report of Orpheus. Check.

Report on Myths of the humans. Check.

Those had taken me all night to do. Drake had better be happy with them.

My pet troll King Zeus beat his club against my desk. I laugh. That means he wants me to turn out the light.

"Goodnight Zeus" I laugh back blowing out the candle

The room is silent. Absolutely silent.

Rain starts pounding down on the roof of my dorm. I groan. Rain is going to keep me up all night.


	5. Chapter 4 by Alura

**Alura's PoV**

I hang up slightly baffled. Why had Mary called me Cotton Eyed Joe..? That song is just weird. Whatever, I suppose it's just thirteen year old humor... but I'll still find out. I turn to Lilly, "Is there anything wrong with this deck?" she looks disappointed.

"No, it's just... Malistaire is their dad, too, so they might as well know," I shrug, "besides, it might help us track him down. I don't know what I'll have to do to track him with the note, but... do you want to copy it onto something? There's a notepad and pen in the observatory, if you want to."

She nods slowly, "I'll go do that. I can keep the cards, right?"

"Of course! Dad felt you were ready and gave those to you before he went evil and insane. He was thinking clearly, so therefore you are ready," I assure her, "Try not to go to mad with power," I grin.

"Right!" she jumps up and puts the cards back in her spellbook. Mary and Rachel teleport soon after she disappears upstairs.

"Where is she?" Mary asks, looking pale. Rachel looks shell shocked.

"Upstairs, copying down the note for herself," I inform them, "I told her to keep the deck, because dad gave it to her before he... you know."

Mary looks like me with her dark hair and eyes and tanned skin, but she's three years younger than me. Rachel is our opposite, with blond hair and ice blue eyes. She's a year younger than Mary.

"Are you sure? What if its a trap?" Rachel asks. We're both very paranoid at times. Her around Dugan, and me around... anything.

"Rach, he didn't have time to give her anything before going evil," I sigh, "but I think we can track Malistaire locations from the note, if it hasn't been Lilly's for to long."

"Why can't someone else stop him? Why does it have to be us?" Mary asks.

"Mary, he's our father, whether we like it or not. It's our family business, so it's our job to stop him," I say, "Besides, it might make people stop looking at us like we're freaks. Thats just a bonus, though."

"Not for me," Rachel mutters, "dad ruined our life."

"Well not completely," Mary protests, "We may have few friends, but the friends we have are good friends."

"Plus, who cares what those other people think? They have no business judging us by Malistaire, do they now? It makes us better than them, since we don't judge people by their family," I add, "I'm living proof, considering I'm related to everything, even the evil."

"You forsake the evil, though," Rachel looks confused.

"They're still related to me," I force a smile, "Only by blood, of course, but still... related."

"I think I have something we can track it on," offers Mary, "but it's at my castle. By the way, why were you at the lake in the middle of the night?"

I read Mary's mind for something I can change the subject with, "Why is my ringtone 'Cotton Eyed Joe'?"

"I don't know, but seriously, why?"

"Personal Business, Mary, personal business," I inspect a dagger I have on the wall to avoid looking at her, because if I did, I'd blush. I don't like blushing.

Rachel whistles, "Well I wasn't by the lake to freeze noobs in it," she contributes.

"Right, they just froze themselves," I roll my eyes.

"Exactly!"

Lilly comes in a minute later with a torn off piece of paper in her hand. She hands me the original note, "Why do you want this, anyways? How would knowing your fath - I mean, Malistaire's location help you?"

"Oh yes, we're going to hunt him down," I say sarcastically, and then add in a serious voice, "Uh, it's... closure."

Mary gives me a weird look, and I sense her wondering why I didn't just tell Lilly our plan. "Right! Mary, can you go get your tracky-thingy-majig?"

_Why didn't you tell her that we're going to stop dad?_ she asks me mentally.

_No need to worry her, right? She might tell Headmaster Ambrose, and he might stop us. I'm not risking that_, I wave goodbye to her as she teleports to her house. _Rachel, stop spying on our conversation, will you?_

_Awww! How'd you know?_ Rachel visibly jumps in surprise.

_I just got the urge to kill Dugan._

_Oh... THAT WASN'T ME!_

__Mary teleports back to me with a square of metal, about ten inches high, tucked under her arm. "I got it, and it isn't called a 'tracky-thingy-majig', it's the Tracker."

I grab it from under her arm and make my lab door appear. I burst through the door into my grey tiled lab, which is filled with tables, which are scattered with inventions, electronics, and my bookshelves hold jars with various liquids in them. I don't pay attention to all of that, walk past my HCFGWAB Machine, and clear a table covered with spare gears with a sweep of my arm. The gears clatter to the floor.

I put the Tracker on the table, place the note on it, and turn to Mary, who'd followed me along with Lilly. "Rachel, stop looking at my weapons and come in here!" I shout. Rachel runs in a second later. I look her over for a few seconds and come to the conclusion that she hasn't stolen anything. "Lilly, please make sure Rach doesn't steal, touch, or tinker with anything in here. Mary, how does the Tracker work?"

"Here, let me show you," she shooes me to the side and starts pressing some buttons on the side of the Tracker. She closes her eyes and seems to concentrate, so I don't interrupt her. Not even Rachel interrupts her.

Mary, quite suddenly, stumbles backwards, "He's here!" she exclaims.

"What? Malistaire is in my _castle_?" I exlciam.

"No, he's in..." she takes a deep breath, "he's in Golem Tower."

I teleport to the commons in the next split second.


End file.
